Once a conference has ended I will update each listing as VODs become available for them: ☒ > ☑Like every year many of us (I hope!) will be on Discord where we'll be watching & discussing the conferences & stage shows as they're happening. Fancy joining us?

Cyberpunk 2077 anyone?

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

What are EA doing on Saturday though?! First Sunday got brought into it, now this! Starting to ruin our chaotic Monday!

Also, if we don't get Cyberpunk, we riot.

Thanks for posting this as usual MS

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Good to hear! I probably say it every year but (other than Christmas) watching E3 with you guys is my favourite time of the year. So looking forward to it again!

EA actually did Saturday last year too (I'd forgotten as well but I always use the previous years schedule as a reference when putting up the new one) but that was the first time they'd done it. Looks like they're sticking with that slot! No complaints though, makes E3 last longer

And yes, if we don't get anything of Cyberpunk this year there will be hell to pay! lol If we see it I think it'll be on the Sunday at the MS conference. Fingers crossed! If there's one thing I want to see this year it's that. I think there's a very good chance.

Got any other hopes/predictions for what you'd like to see this year mate?

Few things I'd like to see, off the top of my head:- Ghost of Tsushima - Gameplay trailer (the open-world samurai game from Sucker Punch).- FromSoftware's new game revealed.- The Last of Us: Part II - Gameplay demo.- Death Stranding - Gameplay demo.- Final Fantasy VII Remake - Gameplay trailer.- Bluepoint - Trailer for their next remake.- Rocksteady's new game revealed.- The next Assassin's Creed.

I've been very lucky by getting the Shenmue 1 & 2 announcement last week so at least I don't have to put that on another E3 list haha. I wouldn't say no to some Shenmue 3 gameplay though

(and nps! Will be keeping the schedule updated as the rest are announced )

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Nintendo announced for the same day & time as last year & E3 Coliseum has been confirmed to be a 3 day event this year, up from last years 2. Was a refreshing & insightful addition to last years schedule I thought so this is great news!

Just the PC Gaming Show & the Sony conference to be announced now, and the start times for each day of Coliseum

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Square Enix have announced a conference for this year (as well as the PC Gaming Show) Hoping we'll see the FFVII Remake there but I'd say the new Tomb Raider & KH3 are a given at the very least.

Assuming Sony fill the same time slot as previous years we'll no longer have the usual gap between theirs and Ubisoft's conference this year as the PC Gaming Show has been scheduled to fit inbetween them!

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Sony confirmed. Usual timeslot The only thing left to add/update to the schedule now are the start times for each of the three days of Coliseum. Everything else is on there & confirmed.

Devolver Digital will be having another 'conference' this year but based on last years I'll probably leave that off as other than a single game trailer (just RUINER iirc?), the rest was a piss take in every sense of the word & heh. That is unless anyone is particularly interested in seeing it? I'll keep an eye out & add it in if so, or maybe I'll just add it in anyway for completions sake [Edit: Added in. It'll be streamed from the main Twitch link. I won't be getting up at 4am UK time for it but I may watch it back on the Mon before the main shows start]

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Just added another stream into the mix for Sunday Between the MS & Beth conferences Frontier will be putting on a pre-launch livestream of Jurassic World Evolution live from E3 (think Roller Coaster Tycoon with dinosaurs if you haven't been following it!)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/428942-Jurassic-World-Evolution-Live-Gameplay-Premiere-at-E3 wrote:We are joined by familiar faces from the developer diaries, Head of Animation Nick Rodgers and Executive Producer Rich Newbold, as we talk through the amazing journey of developing Jurassic World Evolution, show off gameplay on the various islands, discuss the ins and outs of bringing dinosaurs to life, and give away a bunch of copies of the game plus a super exclusive unique prize! We’ll be in the stream chats to answer and relay your questions and comments live, so it will be a great chance for you to get that last, juicy info on the eve of the game’s premiere.

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

E3 Coliseum start times added into the schedule now. It begins each day at 6pm in the UK and runs for 9hrs on Tue & Wed and then 6hrs on the Thu.

They've got some great content lined up across the three days including the Grim Fandango celebration as previously mentioned, a closer look at Ghost of Tsushima, Jonathan Nolan and video games influence on Westworld, talks with Kojima, Amy Hennig, The Making of Fallout 76 with Todd Howard (cue music) etc and lots more.- Click here for a detailed look at the Coliseum schedule.

Also added to the schedule is Limited Run Games. Apparently they specializes in releasing physical copies of previously digital-only indie games. Not sure what their show will be like but since it fits between Square Enix & Ubisoft on Mon I'll probably stick it on

Just 4 more days for the first conference!

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Going to do my write up today, now we're on the final day of the show. But first, as always it's been awesome to spend E3 with you guys and chat about everything as it's happening - I enjoy this time of year so much haha

Second, MS, as always thanks for maintaining this thread - it's been invaluable to me for the past few days. The effort you put in for this doesn't get appreciated enough, so just wanted to say thanks - you're awesome

Reviews to follow later today (hopefully)!

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Anubis wrote:Going to do my write up today, now we're on the final day of the show. But first, as always it's been awesome to spend E3 with you guys and chat about everything as it's happening - I enjoy this time of year so much haha

Second, MS, as always thanks for maintaining this thread - it's been invaluable to me for the past few days. The effort you put in for this doesn't get appreciated enough, so just wanted to say thanks - you're awesome

Reviews to follow later today (hopefully)!

The feeling is mutual mate! I sooo look forward to this time of year and it just wouldn't be the same without being able to spend it with you guys. It has been an absolute pleasure once again

and you're welcome! Happy to hear it has proved as useful for you as it has for me hehe <3

---------------------------

Note: My ratings are based on presentation, enjoyment factor, new games shown & surprise announcements.

#1 MICROSOFT – 9/10

MS have clearly been taking lessons from previous Sony conferences here as this was their best effort in a long time. Chatter was kept to an absolute minimum, they didn’t waste any time and their show was packed with trailers, gameplay demos and surprise announcements. Just how it should be! Whilst 90% of this was admittedly third-party content which aren’t exclusive to them, will all be available on other platforms and still doesn’t give me a reason to ever own an Xbox One, it was very nice to hear that MS have (finally!) been investing heavily in first-party developers. It comes a little late in the game for their Xbox One ofc, but this should make for an exciting & more competitive next-generation. I look forward to seeing what they bring to the table next round!

Lots of highlights from this! Dying Light 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, The Adventures of Captain Spirit (also releasing this month and free! <3), Cuphead DLC, Devil May Cry 5 etc etc. So many to mention.Cyberpunk 2077 was AMAZING as a show closer too and even though I had kinda been expecting to see it right up until the end it still came as a surprise when they cut to the trailer at the end. After playing The Witcher games and falling in love with the world they built and stories they told, TW3 becoming my #1 game of all time (which remained unchallenged for years until then) and CDPR being one of the absolute best developers in the industry, I’m more excited for Cyberpunk than I have been for any other game in I don’t know how long. They didn’t even need to show us gameplay (though the trailer was all in-engine), you just know this is going to be a very special and incredibly ambitious game. I cannot wait to see more.

The only reason I’m not giving this a 10/10 is because Sony E3 2015 still holds that record for me and as good as this was it didn’t match that.Really great job though! This was a brilliantly presented show, was fun to watch and I came away with lots to be excited about. Well done, MS!

#2 SONY – 8.6/10

I had a hard time rating this one tbh. Content wise it not only gave me deep looks at some of the games I’m most anticipating (on any platform) but they also dropped a couple of unexpected bombs too which I was definitely not expecting – the Resident Evil 2 Remake appearance for example is a huge deal for me and most fans of the series and it looks every bit as incredible as I imagined it could do, as a result this was one of those “dream come true” moments for me. The setting of 2 with the combat of 4 and running in the engine of 7, this is going to be the best Resi Evil yet.

The Last of Us was one of my all-time favourite games of the last generation (and for me, arguably Naughty Dogs best game to date, or at least tied with Uncharted 4) so seeing Part II in action was a big moment for me, as was Death Stranding and being a huge Kojima fan (though as with Kojima I still have so many questions but I love that about him lol). I’m leaning towards Ghost of Tsushima being my main highlight from this atm, the gameplay of which looked absolutely beautiful in motion, I really liked the combat and I’m super interested in the setting (who wouldn’t want to play an open-world samurai game set in feudal Japan?!). Whilst we did see the English dub demoed, I have since read that it will also have a Japanese voice track which is wonderful news. That is definitely how I’ll be playing it for maximum authenticity & immersion.

Had Sony stuck with the same presentation style they’ve gone with for the past few years this would have been on-par with MS for me at least (maybe slightly above as, Cyberpunk aside, they had the best games imo and showed a significant amount of gameplay) – It gave me everything I wanted from it and more so what more could I ask, really? Sadly their presentation wasn’t up to scratch this year which is why I’ve docked points. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate them trying something a bit different this year and it was a nice idea (in theory) to have the venue dressed to match the setting of the game they were showing at the time but in reality it just didn’t work well. Cutting to an intermission in order to move an audience from one room to the next and do it a second time was pretty crazy and really took you out of the moment whilst killing the momentum somewhat. I would like to see them put the idea into practice another year except next time just do it the once. Setting the place up like that again for a big surprise reveal in the show could work really well I think (give it a gothic horror look & drop a Bloodborne 2 announcement), just not when you’re trying to do it multiple times in the same conference. The ending was very abrupt too and literally cut straight from the end of a trailer right back to the YouTube studio with Geoff, wtf? lol. Still, a very good show from what we got to see there.

#3 UBISOFT 8.2/10

Presentation wise I still miss Aisha. I know she was a bit like marmite for some folk but I preferred her over having some of the devs present it. A much better public speaker (imo) and always came across genuinely enthusiastic. Oh well. I hope she makes a return one year.

Content wise it was great! It was pretty heavy on the CGI trailers in usual Ubi fashion but they gave us some meaty gameplay for things like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey which I was very thankful for – easily one of my most anticipated games of 2018. I hope some of the side quests are a little more varied this time and offer more depth to them but I loved everything they showed of it. Both Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Skull & Bones likewise looked spectacular, though their camera team need a slap for not going fullscreen during the gameplay footage of the former and having us view it at a distance. I still worry about Skull & Bones’ campaign and hope it isn’t just tacked on or an afterthought but they’ve certainly nailed the look and the gameplay. Fingers crossed.No bombs to close the show but at this stage in the generation we are going to get less and less of those to be fair. – A great show all things being said.

#4 PC GAMING SHOW 8/10

I think the conferences can (when done right) be more exciting to watch as they tend to have more AAA surprises and lengthier gameplay demos but I like how this gives a platform for other games which we don’t always see much of at the bigger events. The pacing of this was extremely good, lots to show with some good interviewing, Yakuza 0 & Kiwami PC announcement which was admittedly a big surprise and fantastic news for PC gamers (make sure your buy Yakuza 0 day one!) and great hosting once again from Day9. A damn fine show – Two Point Hospital was my personal highlight along with Sable which instantly made me think of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Both of those can’t come soon enough!

#5 SQUARE ENIX – 7.8/10

Straight to the point, short and sweet with a good amount of games to show, several of which were completely new to me and ones I’ll be adding to my watch list (Babylon’s Fall from Platinum being one). Only real complaint is that we didn’t get a single glimpse of FFVII:R and we didn’t get a Life is Strange 2 trailer either. I can kind of understand the latter as they’re already showing Captain Spirit this E3 so to start showing LiS2 as well would likely detract from that and maybe give away some of the hints/links that Captain Spirit has to it but I really thought we’d see something of FFVII this year. Other than that I would rate SE’s showcase higher than both EA & Beth due to the amount of footage shown and having enjoyed watching it more than both. I do still prefer the conference format by a long way though but that is by MS’ example this year (and usually Sony too), not Bethesda.

#6 DEVOLVER – 7/10

Purely from a presentation & enjoyment standpoint I thought this was great and one of the best lol. Going into it knowing what to expect helped a lot this time and it was really well acted, gloriously over the top, on point and very fun to watch. Sure they didn’t have anywhere near as much to show as any of the other shows (though it was only 20mins long) they did have 3 games to show this year instead of 1, 1 of those games looked kinda alright to me (My Friend Pedro) and while it didn’t interest me personally the From Software game was a nice surprise too given how it was only ever released in Japan many years ago and will have been a good announcement for some people I reckon.I want to see them further increase the amount of games they’re showcasing again next year (even if it means extending the length of it a bit) whilst keeping everything else the same but I found this extremely entertaining and I’m a big fan of it personally. Never change, Devolver!

#7 BETHESDA 6/10

Well, I did think things could only get better after EA but Bethesda managed to prove me wrong me lol.As one of my favourite & most underrated games of last year the Prey stuff was greatly appreciated and nice to see (some of which is already out) and whilst I went in expecting Fallout 76 to be an online survival playground with a “make your own” type story setting, I was happy to learn that it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. This came across more like an MMO which I’m certainly up for giving a try should I get into the beta. Part of me kinda wishes F76 was another traditional single player RPG but you know what? Props to Bethesda for trying something a bit different this time.(I should give DOOM a mention too. It’s not something I was interested in or likely to play myself but I know the last game was very positively received & will be welcome news for lots of other folk)

The problem I had with this conference was they spent a crazy amount of time talking, trailers & gameplay footage were few & far between and when they did show stuff (with the exception of Fallout), they didn’t really show much at all. For Starfield & The Elder Scrolls VI they literally announced a logo. I mean really? Just to please their main audience? We’ve known Starfield was a thing for at least a year now so giving us a teaser that showed <censored> all did absolutely nothing for me and told us nothing we didn’t already know. Why bother?I decided to rate this one slightly higher than EA in the end due to the Fallout coverage and presentation from Todd and the announcements for Prey DLC & the new DOOM but it was still pretty poor overall.

#8 ELECTRONIC ARTS – 4.5/10

The good thing about this conference being the first of E3 is that it can only get better lol [Edit: Or so I thought when writing this haha]. Let’s be honest, the EA show is never one of the best so going into it I thought I had my expectations in check. I was wrong. I was still disappointed lol.I went in expecting to see a gameplay demo of Battlefield V and tbh that would have been enough to please me but to tease more of it for the Microsoft conference (and just SP I may add) and then show us a MP trailer which was less than 2 minutes long… That [i]really[i] annoyed me for the rest of the show.

Granted they talked a little more about Anthem & showed a bit of gameplay from that at the end too (although it didn’t do much for me) but this and Battlefield V are their biggest upcoming titles and that is what you’d expect from them. In the case of BFV, if they’re not going to dedicate a decent amount of time to showcasing these games at their own conference then why bother holding one? BFV is out in 4 month and the BF community has been doing a far better job of this (as well as discussing the changes that BFV is bringing to the series, of which there are many) than EA recently. I’m sold on BFV now & very excited for some of those changes but this is all thanks to coverage from community members like JackFrags & Westie, not EA. Previous years they’ve shown us entire MP matches for things like this so yeah… extremely disappointed there.

One game I had hoped would make an appearance at the show was Respawn’s Star Wars game but since it isn’t quite ready to show yet they decided to have Vince give us a few tidbits and the games title while sat in the audience. Maybe I was still pissed off from the lack of BFV but why even bother? And don’t get me started on that C&C game… wow.

Positives of the show were the surprise reveal of Unravel Two which not only looked great but was announced to be releasing out of the blue that same day – fantastic, and really nice to see EA continuing to support unique titles like that. Sea of Solitude also looks very promising (and beautiful) and is actually something I had my eye on when it was in its prototype stage prior to it becoming an EA Originals title. Wasn’t expecting to see it at the conference so that was a nice surprise too.

Had they shown me a MP demo of BFV, even just a 5-10 minute clip, I’d be rating this higher but can’t help but come away with a sour taste in my mouth after seeing so little.

#9 LIMITED RUN GAMES 4/10

Awful presentation style (they tried to copy Devolver and failed) with some terribly dodgy audio but they did have plenty to show to help make up for it. Problem is this wasn’t a show to watch for new game announcements or upcoming games footage. It does seem a bit unfair of me to judge it on that as this is not what they do, but offer limited physical releases for previously digital only indie games. For this, I’d say they did a very good job. Lots of cool releases coming up for the physical media collectors out there, they were just older games, some of which I’d already played a long time ago. That being said they did manage to put a few of those on my radar which I had completely missed so that was kinda nice I suppose!

#10 NINTENDO 3/10

No Metroid Prime 4, no Bayonetta 3, no Pikmin 4, no Yoshi, no Star Fox, no Animal Crossing and whilst they did admittedly have some good port announcements (Hollow Knight for example which I loved on PC) there was only a single new game which caught my eye - Octopath Traveler which we already saw from Square Enix and which showed us nothing new here. Proper old-school vibe to it though and one title I’d definitely play if I had a Switch.

To be fair, they didn’t have time to show any of the above titles because they spent so <censored> long on Smash Bros! To have spent 2/3 of their show on that (we’re taking around 25 minutes here - which felt like an eternity) was absolutely insane. Wtf were they thinking? It was worse than EA’s Sports section and I hate sports lol.

Sorry Nintendo but that was bloody awful.

MY TOP 5 GAMES OF SHOW

#1 CYBERPUNK 2077#2 GHOST OF TSUSHIMA#3 RESIDENT EVIL 2#4 ASSASSIN'S CREED ODYSSEY#5 THE LAST OF US PART II

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ok, as promised - reviews time! I'm going to keep with my format from last year again as I think that works really well! Also note that a few games I plan to buy appeared in multiple conferences, so I've tried to include these only once on to buy lists where possible, with the owning publisher. Hope you all enjoy reading

#1 MICROSOFT - 9/10

It's been a long time coming, but for the first time since the Xbox One reveal Microsoft has finally put on a conference worthy of topping this list. This was their best showing in an awfully long time. From a presentational standpoint, great job - we didn't lose presenters entirely, but they were kept to a minimum and used quite well. From a content standpoint, great job - they brought 50 games, which is more than Square Enix, Ubisoft and Sony put together!

They showed way too much for me to go through everything individually, but suffice to say there was a lot of good stuff. To highlight particularly, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice looked great, as did Ori, Devil May Cry 5, Jump Force and Kingdom Hearts 3. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit made me jump for joy as a Life is Strange fan, and of course Cyberpunk 2077 blew everything away at the end. An extremely solid lineup.

Also, I have to say that it was awesome to hear them talk about investing in more first party studios, and building up their indie credentials. They have a long way to go to catch up to Sony, but finally they seem to have got the message. In fact, that was really the theme of this conference. They finally understand their issues and are fixing them. It's too late for this generation, but the next may not be far off...next year's E3 will be very interesting! For now though, a superb year!

HIGHLIGHTS:

Cyberpunk 2077. Do I need to say more? Even despite the terrible FPS news that came out the next day, this looked outstanding.

First Party Investment. This is great news for all gamers. MS finally starting to pump money into more devs is something long overdue.

The reveal of The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit made me mark out, given this was the first time we saw it.

Discord wrote:[10:36 PM] BlackDove: Great conference.[10:36 PM] BlackDove: This is what it should be like[10:36 PM] BlackDove: Talking kept to minimum[10:36 PM] BlackDove: trailers back to back[10:37 PM] BlackDove: No mobile, no indie, no garbage[10:37 PM] BlackDove: Great job

#2 SQUARE ENIX - 8/10

Returning to the world of conferences for the first time in a while, Square came close to hitting a home run, but fell just short. Deciding between second and third place was tough, but ultimately the strength of Square's lineup overall won out. They only brought 10 titles, but all looked very good, and this was the conference that had me writing down most names to either buy or keep an eye on. Their presentation also can't be faulted, with back to back content. Great job.

Game wise, with Dragon Quest 11, Kingdom Hearts 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XIV, and Just Cause 4 there was pretty much something for everyone, and even the stuff that wasn't for me personally was presented well. They even brought some obscure titles such as The Quiet Man and Babylon's Fall, which did not look at all out of place with the bigger names. Square have an impressive catalogue of franchises, and that was used to good effect here.

Ultimately, I think that with a really big hitter Square could have won this year - they certainly weren't far off Microsoft, and I think if they'd brought something from Final Fantasy VII Remake that would have been enough to put them over the top. That's pretty incredible for a company that has been out of the game in recent years. I hope they are back to stay now, because if they can keep up this standard they'll likely be one of my most anticipated conferences going forward.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The Shadow of the Tomb Raider footage. The mention of Trinity in the Microsoft conference had thrown me, but this put it back on my definite list.

Just Cause 4 looked awesome, with the weather physics particularly looking great. Shame that without a story I'll never play it.

The Final Fantasy XIV Patch trailer was typically great and reminded me that I need to go back to that game at some point.

The Quiet Man, Babylon's Fall and Octopath Traveller all looked extremely interesting and worth following further.

TO BUY LIST:

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, even if the involvement of Trinity again makes me wary

Another year, another solid conference from Ubisoft. As I seem to say every year, they're really good at these now. As noted above, it was a tough call as to whether this ended up second or third, but this is a strong third, not a weak one. I'm not going to talk too much about the things they always do well, but I will just say that their ability to create a conference with something for everyone each and every year is second to none. They are the best marketeers at E3, in my view.

Of the stuff shown in the conferences Ubisoft probably had the best three individual demos of the show this year. I'm obviously talking about Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones, and Assassins Creed Odyssey. All of them were utterly out of this world good. BG&E2 absolutely blew my mind it looked that amazing - on what the public actually saw it looked better than Cyberpunk 2077, which is ridiculously high praise. I can't stress enough how amazing those three games looked.

At the end of the day though, it was depth that cost them. They have the blockbusters to blow all else away, but a their midcard wasn't quite as good or consistent as Square's. Games like Just Dance and The Crew are ok games that are VERY niche. This means that whilst the conference covers all bases, it peaks and troughs my interest. Square presented games I wouldn't play in ways that kept my interest, Ubisoft didn't always manage that - which is why Square win out.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The Beyond Good & Evil 2 trailer looked absolutely out of this world, and was easily the best trailer coming out of E3 this year. Stunning!

Skull & Bones built on a solid reveal last year with an awesome showing here. Totally sold, they don't need to say another word.

Assassins Creed Odyssey looked pretty great, and that's coming from someone who has been worn out on AC games.

TO BUY LIST:

Beyond Good & Evil 2

Skull & Bones

Assassins Creed Origins(yes, that's right, Origins. Odyssey looked so good it convinced me to try Origins and see whether I like the new direction)

Discord wrote:[10:33 PM] Anubis: that Ubi conference wasn't bad. A bunch of stuff, some great, some good, some meh[10:33 PM] Anubis: can't complain all too much I guess[10:34 PM] M.Steiner: Very heavy on the CGI trailers but they showed a nice amount of gameplay too

#4 SONY - 7/10

Sony continues its slide down these rankings this year, primarily due to a lineup lacking big surprises and a self-inflicted hammerblow by messing with, and ruining, the conference format. Getting the audience to move to another room 10 minutes in, and leaving the stream to buy time for 15 minutes via an "intermission" while it happens, is a terrible idea that should not be repeated. Luckily though the content was good enough to largely repair the damage.

Numerically with only around 15 games this conference was quite light, but given several big names just released that's not too surprising. They maintained their usual graphical standard and brought some hugely impressive gameplay demos in The Last of Us 2, Spider Man, Death Stranding, and most particularly Ghost of Tsushima. Not all of them will be for everyone, but it's hard to deny the quality - all were up there as best in show presentations this year.

Despite how good those 4 games were though, even if you put aside the intermission, I felt the conferences above Sony in this list had more solid overall shows this year. I think this is likely because the PS5 will be revealed next year, so this is something of a quieter transition year for Sony. Time will tell if that's true. For now though, fourth place - but this was still quite a solid, impressive showing.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The Ghost of Tsushima footage blew me away, and took it from something barely on my radar to one of my most anticipated games for the next year.

Kingdom Hearts 3 - We saw most of the footage in other conferences, but here they revealed that PotC is going to be in it! Yes!!!

Spider Man yet again looked awesome, very similar to Arkham which is high praise from me. Must buy.

The Resident Evil 2 reveal. No game could be less for me, but it got a monstrous reaction and looks amazing for fans of the series.

TO BUY LIST:

Ghost of Tsushima

Spider Man

Discord wrote:[3:11 AM] Anubis: the format was awful[3:11 AM] Anubis: content was broadly good[3:11 AM] Anubis: I would say maaaaybe where I expected them to fall[3:13 AM] M.Steiner: Had the format been the same as last year I'd have rated that on-par with MS but they lose some marks for that with the intermission especially. The content was exactly what I wanted to see though and they had some big surprises which I had no idea about

#5 PC GAMING SHOW - 5/10

This conference has pretty rapidly grown into a solid show. For the third year running the format noticeably improved, with the hardware section being MUCH better this year. The games lineup was also relatively solid, without anything spectacular. SEGA gave them a big coup by announcing a couple of major franchises for PC in Yakuza and Shenmue, but other than the excellent Two Point Hospital and ANNO 1800 I didn't feel there was much else shown that was standout.

So now they've fixed the time-slot and the format, the next step is to really try and ramp up that lineup. It's solid now, but lacking the big hitter or two that could really push the conference to the next level. I think they've progressed as far as they can now without bigger name titles, so hopefully they will look to try and address that for next year, but good job all round as usual.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The format. They again made incremental improvements, and it's become one of the better presented conferences now.

The SEGA announcements Yakuza 0 and Kiwami and Shenmue 1 and 2. These were pretty big coups for the show and for PC gaming in general.

Two Point Hospital looked great and I am totally sold on it from this showing.

The Sinking City sounded like a very interesting detective game concept and merits closer attention.

TO BUY LIST:

Shenmue 1 & 2

Two Point Hospital

Discord wrote:[12:48 AM] Anubis: well I think that was about what I've come to expect[12:48 AM] Anubis: average showing, relatively solid now, but nothing overly special[12:48 AM] Anubis: the SEGA announcements were a big coup[12:50 AM] M.Steiner: Highlights for me: Two Point Hospital, Sable, Night Call, The Sinking City & Anno 1800

#6 NINTENDO - 5/10

An ok showing for Nintendo this year, but a conference of two halves. The first half was pretty good with a decent lineup - even I, not being a Nintendo fan, liked the look of some of the stuff they showed. Daemon x Machina, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Fire Emblem Three Houses looked decent, though all had their flaws and stuff like Fortnite brought broader appeal. I counted 34 games in total which is extremely good for Nintendo, so kudos there.

However, they then proceeded to spend 22 minutes showing off every single character in the new Super Smash Bros... I know it's a very popular game but come on...this is not the time or the place to do that. It was way, WAY too long and it killed the conference for me. A very poor directorial decision which damaged what was an otherwise decent show, even without most of the usual big hitters like Zelda, Mario (mostly), etc. Hopefully they learn from this for next year.

HIGHLIGHTS:

I thought Daemon x Machina actually looked kinda fun if you're into mechs - very Gundam-esque. As a bit of mindless action I give it a thumbs up.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 looked great as an action RPG. I would almost certainly buy this if it were a turn based JRPG instead, and also on PC.

TO BUY LIST:

Nothing

Discord wrote:[5:38 PM] M.Steiner: Legit getting drowsy here. No one will want to play this <censored> game when it comes out as they'll have already seen everything[5:38 PM] M.Steiner: Jesus Christ[5:43 PM] BlackDove: You don't like the super smash brothers?[5:43 PM] BlackDove: My favorite game[5:44 PM] BlackDove: Just kidding, haven't played a nintendo game in 20 years.

#7 BETHESDA - 3/10

"Appalling", "Torture", "Garbage". These are the adjectives that we in Discord collectively felt best represented this horrendous offering. The wider internet has been up in arms praising it as the greatest press conference of all time, because it announced Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, but given these "announcements" were 10 second long videos that showed nothing but the titles...there was just zero substance to them, and that was really the story of the whole conference.

The lineup might sound good on paper with the likes of Rage 2, Elder Scrolls Online, and Doom Eternal, but there was just so little gameplay for anything. They did show quite a bit of Fallout 76, and the graphics look great, but I don't think they will quell the unrest in the fanbase - the gameplay details they offered were very unconvincing. The emphasis on "make your own story, decide who is good and bad" in particular feels like Bethesda's worst tendencies at work.

On the plus side, at least we didn't get "Bethesdaland" back this year, so that's good I guess. Beyond that though it's difficult to put a positive shine on what was another torrid showing.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Rage 2. I actually liked this, minus the band's intro (which sucked). Graphics looked great, and the gameplay makes it look a lot of fun as a crazy shooter.

Skyrim for Alexa. This was a fun joke, but perhaps poorly placed given how bad this conference was and how little actual content there was.

TO BUY LIST:

Nothing.

Discord wrote:[3:04 AM] Whizbang: This is human rights abuse type torture right now[3:55 AM] Anubis: that was a garbage tier conference[3:55 AM] Anubis: why bother mentioning stuff if you have nothing to show[3:59 AM] Kon: TES6 and Starfield namedrops were just them confirming rumors and telling fans, "stay loyal to us please, and wait until ESO and Fallout 76 stop being profitable"[4:00 AM] Kon: They had to throw up some titles there or else their core fans would be absolutely alienated[4:00 AM] Kon: The problem is, in a few of the Bethesda-oriented servers, it looks like a decent number of people realize that and aren't entirely pleased[4:03 AM] M.Steiner: To say I was annoyed at the 1min 45sec trailer for BFV MP at EA's conference, compared to Beth's, I suppose I was lucky lol

#8 EA - 2/10

After a meagre step forward last year, EA stepped backwards again this time round with a press conference that was even more short on content than usual. When the game you spend most time focusing on is a mobile game, you know that you're hitting a new low. Then when you announce said mobile game is actually a ruination of Command & Conquer... Ugh. Spending 10 minutes on a live-casted full game of this during the press conference was beyond belief.

Thank god they brought Unravel 2 so the conference had at least one saving grace! It looked great, with the co-op element looking like a smart new mechanic. That aside, we saw the usual suspects (FIFA, Madden), they ruined Battlefield V with a BR mode, and showed footage of Anthem that made it look like an inferior Destiny. Oh, and they named Star Wars Fallen Order - just the name, no footage. This was such a poor showing even by EA's usual standards.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Unravel 2. Looked great, and it's cool that they're building on the original game with the co-op mechanic too rather than just trying to do more of the same.

Maybe Sea of Solitude? Looked like a slightly above average indie. I'm scraping the barrel though.

TO BUY LIST:

Nothing.

Discord wrote:[7:51 PM] BlackDove: Is this shit really being shown[7:51 PM] BlackDove: At E3[7:51 PM] BlackDove: On the main stage for the company[7:51 PM] BlackDove: This long[7:51 PM] Anubis: yeah I can't believe they're playing a full mobile game at an E3 press conference[7:51 PM] BlackDove: I guess EA has nothing game wise[7:51 PM] Anubis: this may be the stupidest thing I've ever seen

#9 LIMITED RUN GAMES - 2/10

It blows my mind to think that someone watched last year's Devolver Digital conference and thought "my god that's amazing, we need to do our own version". But apparently Limited Run Games did, because the presentation of this conference was AWFUL - based on the appalling Devolver show, but they couldn't be even be bothered getting a proper setup to do it - it sounded like they filmed it in a warehouse (that echo...). The absolute most unprofessional conference I've ever seen.

But the worst part was, they didn't need to grab for attention like that! Their lineup wasn't terrible, and deserved a higher rating than this - why not just show it instead of making me hate both it and you with this hateful presentation?! Please, either be professional or just don't come back next year. I can't handle any more conferences like this.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Learning what the company is about. Producing physical editions of games that would otherwise never get one is a cool concept I can get behind.

Seeing cool games I know about like Observer and Golf Story getting physical copies is nice, also Yooka-Laylee looked a VERY pretty, fun platformer.

TO BUY LIST:

Nothing.

Discord wrote:[8:25 PM] Anubis: this has actually revealed a lot of games and done ok on that front but the presentation has been atrocious[8:28 PM] M.Steiner: Can agree on that lol. Presentation needs a lot of work and they need to fix their audio for those sections too (unless it's just me, but it's incredibly low and echoey when they're talking on this end. Don't know if it's intended but it sounds bad). Their games footage has been surprising good though[8:28 PM] Anubis: yeah the audio is dreadful[8:28 PM] Anubis: they've filmed it in a warehouse[8:39 PM] Anubis: they're losing a lot of marks for the presentation but solid lineup

#10 DEVOLVER DIGITAL - 1/10

That only leaves one conference, the one which last year claimed the honour of worst press conference in E3 history. That's right - Devolver Digital is back again, and it sucked again. It was not QUITE as bad as last year, but that was only really because one of their three games (3 games...it just baffles me as to why you'd bother showing up) actually looked good this time. The presentation/parody was just as horrific as last time, and I just don't see how people find it funny.

Narrowly avoiding being as bad as you were last year isn't an achievement, it's not a good thing, but I guess they must think it is somehow. I don't want to see them back again next year, or ever, I just don't.

HIGHLIGHTS:

It was again short, so at least I didn't need to waste hours on this.

My Friend Pedro actually did look like a decent modern side-scroller, with a really cool ricochet gimmick.

TO BUY LIST:

Nothing.

Discord wrote:[7:02 PM] M.Steiner: Also Devolver was great lol. Stuck it on before SE[7:02 PM] M.Steiner: Knowing what to expect from it this time helped heh.[7:05 PM] M.Steiner: No wrestling this time but it was still a good laugh and they announced a couple more games this time[2:46 PM] Anubis: that was godawful[2:46 PM] Anubis: I'm not sure whether I hate that or Limited Run Games more[2:47 PM] Anubis: presentation was better, games were worse[2:47 PM] Anubis: and I say "better" loosely in that there was no echo

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Seriously though, we're REALLY different this year which is really interesting to see! Great write up as always man

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Nice to see we came away with very similar highlights and the same top 2 games even though our rankings differed slightly!

----------Some of these got linked on Discord but here are some additional trailers & gameplay demos which were shown outside of the conferences (either separately or during stage shows) which some of you may have missed I'll spoiler tag them which I think should help with thread loading(?)